The ministry says two more people have died of malnutrition, bringing the number of hunger related deaths since the start of the war to 159.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday in a bid to salvage Gaza ceasefire talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine was unfolding.

The third threshold, mortality from starvation and related causes, remains unverified. This is not because people are not dying. This is because the conditions on the ground—lack of humanitarian access,

Ismail Haniyeh led Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs Gaza, for over a decade. Hamas said he was killed in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s president.

A top Hamas leader was killed by an airborne guided projectile in the capital, Tehran, per Iranian media. His hosts were unable to defend him.